PROCEDURES FOR LETTERS OF INTENT

The following procedures should be followed in formatting your Letters of Intent:

1. All items should be arranged in alphabetical order, according to the name under which the item should be registered. Thus alternate persona badges and names would be placed under the name of the primary persona, names of orders under the name of the appropriate territorial group and heraldic titles under the name of the Kingdom.

2. All items should be numbered clearly for the convenience of the membership of the College. Any commonly accepted numbering system may be used, but Arabic is recommended. If more than one armorial item is being submitted for the same submitter, it should be numbered separately to avoid confusion. Thus, if the first items on a letter of intent were a name, device and badge for Asa Mellonby, the name and device would be item 1 and the badge would be item 2.

3. All items should be clearly labeled to indicate what is being submitted at this time (name, device, etc.) and whether this is new (at Laurel level) or a resubmission. Remember that it does not matter if this is the TENTH try for the submitter within your Kingdom : if none of the prior submissions was ever sent on to the College of Arms, this is a NEW submission. A typical indicator would be Snulbugga the Fair-haired (Resubmission of Name, New Device).

4. If the submission is a resubmission, a summary of the information on the most recent return(s) should be included. This would typically include the date of return from Laurel, any information about the reasons for return which is pertinent to the current submission (or a statement why those reasons for return are NOT pertinent).

5. All items should be accompanied by a summary of any evidence which is forwarded to Laurel and, in the case of references to books, manuscripts, etc., should be specific (i.e., indicate pages, etc.). In the case of names particularly, it is a disservice to the College to ignore the evidence sent to Laurel, for many members of the College spend much time documenting material that is already documented adequately on the forms, but not in the Letter of Intent. Additionally, since many members of the College draw upon the research of others as conveyed in letters of intent, if you omit adequate detail on the research, you are diminishing the collective resources of the College.

6. If a name or item of armoury involves permissions which have been granted, state prominently and specifically that this has been granted: if no note is made of the fact that permission to conflict has been granted by Snulbugga the Fair-haired to conflict with the badge of House Igloo, there is no point in being irritated if fifteen members of the College call this conflict!

7. If the submission involves a "reserved" usage, include specific reference to the submitter's valid claim to use this. For instance, "Snulbugga includes the embattled coronet on his new device in honour of his being invested as Count by Frodo the Impossible at Twelfth Night Court in A.S. XXVII."

8. For every item of armoury there must be an emblazon, normally of "miniature" size accompanying the Letter of Intent. Such emblazons may be attached to the letter in separate sheets (the convention in the East and West) or be placed adjacent to the text dealing with that item. In the former case, each item should be clearly labeled with the item number used in the text and should, where possible, be placed in ascending numeric order. These emblazons should be serious attempts to represent the intent of the submittor: no matter how beautiful the heraldic art, if there is a serious disparity between the actual emblazon and the emblazon on the letter of intent, this may be grounds for pending or returning the submission.

9. The letter should be mailed within a reasonable period of its cover date. If it is anticipated that more than a week or so is going to intervene between the typing of the letter and its mailing, postdate the letter to the mailing date. If unforeseen circumstances delay the letter, redate the old letter manually before sending it out (sticky labels work marvelously for this!).

PROCEDURES FOR LAUREL PACKETS

In putting together packets of paperwork for the Laurel Office, please follow these procedures. Considering the requirements for Laurel packets when processing your paperwork and generating your letters of intent will make it easier to keep the paperwork straight!

1. If the paperwork packet is being sent after the Letter of Intent, it should be accompanied by a second copy of the Letter. The original copy, which should include the miniature emblazon sheets, will be used for a "file copy". The second copy, which need not include the miniature emblazons, will be used as a working copy for marking. As it may be cut up or passed around a group, it would be convenient for the Laurel Office if this were single-sided so that it would not have to be Xeroxed but this is not required. NOTE: if the packet is mailed with the Letter of Intent include both the "file copy" and the "working copy" with the paperwork.

2. All forms should be arranged in the same order that the items they represent appeared on the Letter of Intent. Forms appertaining to the same item numerically should be clipped or stapled together, but multiple submissions for the same individual should be kept separate. Thus forms and documentation for a name and device for Snulbugga the Fairhaired would be fastened together, but the paperwork for a badge for Snulbugga should be kept separate.

3. The Society name of the submittor should be clearly indicated on all forms. Many forms still in use today have the name of the consulting herald, the home group or the submittor's mundane name placed more prominently on the form. As the Laurel Office files material by the Society name, this is very confusing to us both in filing and at meetings. If the Consulting Herald appears at the top of the form, cross out that name (we don't need to know that). If one of the other elements appears more prominently, try highlighting the Society name of the submittor with a clear highlighter (yellow is a good heraldic colour!). Optimally, the forms for all Kingdoms would have the Society name of the submittor at the top of the page.

4. Black out any information irrelevant to the current submission (preferably with a reasonably black marker). If a name is passed on from Kingdom while the device is held for conflict, cross out any information on the forms which applies to the device. (This is simpler if the name and armoury forms are separate as suggested a few months ago.)

5. Make sure that Xeroxes of all documentation alluded to in the text of the letter are attached to the forms. Do not make assumptions that the Laurel Office has copies of your favourite reference work (or that it will at some time in the future: the records for a submission are often used to confirm a usage if someone refers to that submission as a precedent and it is much easier for all concerned if there is a Xerox of the page from the obscure book on Arabic nicknames that the brother-in-law of Vesper owned in 1975 and brought to the Laurel meeting). NOTE: We have discovered from the protests of submittors that a number of submissions from several Kingdoms which were returned at Laurel level for lack of documentation had Xeroxed documentation, which was never alluded to the letter of intent "because it was attached to the forms", while the herald who put together the packet (in some cases a different person from the one who had written the letter) omitted to attach this information to the submission: this is not fair to the submitor!

6. Be absolutely certain that any permissions, evidence for use of reserved charges, statements of support for group armoury, etc. that are required are firmly attached to the relevant forms. Lack of these can result in the pending or return of the submission.

7. Make sure that the spelling of the name and the blazon on the forms matches the one in the Letter of Intent. If the forms are wrong, correct them (legibly, please!). If the Letter of Intent is wrong, make a note of this on the forms (Scotch Stick-Ums are good for this) and, if this will change any consideration of conflict checking or documentation checking (i.e., a position or tincture is wrong or the name is seriously misspelled), send out a correction mailing to the College.

8. Verify that there is a "piece of paper" for every submission on the letter of intent. Make certain that there is a colour emblazon for every piece of armoury; a signed release for every item or group of items being released; a statement of the grounds of appeal for every appeal. NEVER say "the emblazon/documentation is already in the Laurel files" and not include any information on the submission in the packet.

9. After double-checking all forms for completeness, calculate the amount due for fees for new submissions and write a cheque for that amount, payable to SOCIETY FOR CREATIVE ANACHRONISM, COLLEGE OF ARMS. (If you can't fit that in your handwriting, Society for Creative Anachronism is fine with the bank.) A PACKET IS NOT COMPLETE WITHOUT THE PAYMENT OF FEES. Note that resubmissions (of whatever age) do not require a new fee, but official armoury does now require a fee.

10. Pack the whole in an envelope sturdy enough to hold the contents easily. Seal well, but no so impenetrably that we have to destroy the contents to remove the strapping tape. (This is not a joke: several packets have arrived in envelopes too light for the weight and slightly shredded; several others required the use of a light jigsaw blade to cut through the strapping tape!) Make sure both the address and the return address are legible.

11. Send it First Class or Priority Mail, but do not send it "Return Receipt", Express Mail, or any other mode which will require a signature unless you want it delayed for a week or more. (I leave town at 7 A.M. and return well after the Post Office closes so mail which must be signed for requires that I get to the Post Office on a Saturday morning.) Express Mail now can be theoretically sent without the requirement of a signature, but I have never received such a packet and some people who have indicate that the notation on the forms is not always observed so don't count on it.

These procedures are designed to make life easier for both the staff at Kingdom level and the Laurel staff. The easier the processing process is, the greater the probability of it occurring in a timely manner. If I have the paperwork in good time and containing all the information I need to process it accessible without hours of extra research, the lower the probability that there will be processing delays or the need to pend any submissions.